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Late goal helps WBS Penguins fend off elimination

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ANDREW KRECH / THE CITIZENS’ VOICE Penguins’ Zach Sill jumps against the glass as the crowd erupts after scoring the game-winning goal Saturday against St. John’s.

WILKES-BARRE TWP. — It’s not a thought that crossed his mind in the slightest, but with free agency or NHL graduation likely in his future, Zach Sill may have been playing his final shift as a member of the home team at the Mohegan Sun Arena late in Saturday night’s game.

It’s a shift he’ll never forget.

Sill scored the tie-breaking goal with 15.8 seconds left, leading the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins to a season-saving 4-2 victory over the St. John’s IceCaps in Game 5 of the AHL’s Eastern Conference finals.

The IceCaps still lead the series, 3-2. Game 6 is Tuesday night in St. John’s.

“The emotion goes up and the intensity goes up,” Sill said. “Nobody in this room wanted to stop playing hockey yet. You dig down to a deeper level, that’s for sure.”

On a neutral-zone faceoff with about 30 seconds left and the score tied 2-2, coach John Hynes tried to make a late personnel change.

Referee Terry Koharski disallowed it, ruling that the change took too long. Sill’s line stayed on the ice and the top scoring line stayed on the bench.

The Penguins owe Koharski a big thank you.

They marched down the ice and Tom Kostopoulos threw a puck into the crease from the right-wing corner. Harry Zolnierczyk kept it alive at the near post and Sill took a shot that banked off the far post, off goalie Michael Hutchinson and in.

“It went off the post and my heart sank for a minute, then it went off his glove and into the net and that was exciting,” Sill said.

Facing elimination, it was all hands on deck for the Penguins in Game 5. Andrew Ebbett, who missed 11 games with an upper-body injury, and Chuck Kobasew, who was out two games with a lower-body injury, were back in the lineup.

They combined to score the tying goal with 7:30 left in regulation. Kobasew finished off a cross-ice pass from Ebbett at the end of a long offensive-zone shift. Kobasew also tacked on an empty netter with 6.1 seconds left.

“We had no choice. It was either find a way to win or go home,” Kobasew said. “Proud the way the guys played to battle back.”

Despite the return of Kobasew and Ebbett, which provided a jolt of offensive firepower, not to mention 801 games worth of NHL experience, the Penguins were still plagued by a problem that haunted them in a 2-1 Game 4 loss two nights earlier.

They spent too much time in the penalty box.

Ebbett, Sill and Philip Samuelsson were hit with consecutive slashing calls in a three-minute span in the middle of the period and St. John’s took a 1-0 lead on a goal by Will O’Neill with nine seconds left on the five-on-three power play that followed.

The Penguins answered with a strong start to the second period. They outshot the IceCaps 8-3 in the first 10 minutes and tied the score 1-1 on a goal by former St. John’s winger Spencer Machacek at the 3:49 mark.

After a scramble in the neutral zone, Machacek took off on a three-on-one with Mike Carman and Scott Harrington, kept the puck himself and scored over Hutchinson’s left shoulder.

Penalty problems popped up again for the Penguins shortly thereafter, however.

Harrington was whistled for tripping Carl Klingberg with 6:35 left in the second period and Patrice Cormier tipped in an O’Neill shot from the blue line with 5:55 to go to give St. John’s a 2-1 lead heading into the third.

“We have to do a better job,” Hynes said. “We didn’t like the penalties we took again tonight.”

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